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As a women’s history professor, I expected to spend 2020 in public celebration. We’re marking 100 years since American women were granted the right to vote, and this big anniversary was supposed to be a year-long party, from schools to museums to city squares. I expected to be marching in the streets, arms linked with other feminists, urging my sisters to get out the vote–to remember their foremothers’ many sacrifices for that right. My banner, my suffrage outfit, my typed up speeches were crisp and ready.

Alas, this significant “year of the woman” has disappeared in the pandemic crisis, first with the cancellation of most Women’s History Month activities in March, followed by an outright ban on large gatherings. Marching online just isn’t the same. But if I have to shelter in place, Santa Cruz offers the best possible radio soundtrack for a sidelined feminist.

You see, my research specialty is the women’s music movement: from suffrage songs to folk protest to the daring lesbian-affirming anthems of Olivia Records. And here in our redwoods, my local dial is tuned to the Women’s Radio Collective at KZSC. These women have been serving up rare and wonderful women’s music on the regular “Breakfast in Bed” program since 1975. It’s their anniversary, too, as one of the longest-running women’s radio shows in the United States.

What’s women’s music? Why is it important? From the treehouselike studio station on campus, WRC hosts Carol, LC, Lani, Maria, Betsy and others declare that they play “music by women, for everyone,” but more accurately, it’s music that gives voices to otherwise untold stories from women’s lives. Each week, that Sunday morning radio program spins out true stories of female survival, from blues legacies to working women’s ballads to anthems of love and friendship between women. Having been a guest on the show and toured the mouthwatering collection of vinyl in the station, I’ve spent the better part of the past two years trying to get the Women’s Radio Collective written into history, archived and paid homage for all they do as tireless volunteers.

The Women’s Radio Collective is a great example of what a women’s studies program can accomplish. The radio show began when the late activist and producer Karlene Faith proposed teaching a lecture course called “Women in American Music” at UCSC; it was accepted at Kresge College in 1975. Bringing in the new stars of women’s music to perform live–including Cris Williamson, whose 1975 album The Changer and the Changed remains one of the best-selling independent albums of all time for Olivia Records—the class produced working groups of music students who eventually started the Breakfast in Bed radio show. Artists whose work was too radical for mainstream airplay had their works shared at KZSC, delighting local fans who first heard women’s music artists at local festivals and concerts. This history is now being archived at the MAH, Santa Cruz’s Museum of Art and History, in a (temporarily “virtual”) exhibit showcasing legacies of Santa Cruz LGBT Pride.

It was while teaching at UCSC that Angela Davis published her book “Blues Legacies and Black Feminisms,” and sharp-eyed treasure hunters can also find a few surviving copies of the original Women’s Music textbook accompanying that 1975 class taught by Karlene Faith. But you don’t need to be a women’s history sleuth to dig the vibes of jazz, salsa, ballad and truth that warm our Sunday mornings. We who are wondering what comes next have a soundtrack for survival here in Santa Cruz, with our own county designating KZSC radio hosts as essential workers in a time when information, optimism, and beloved voices are our only currency.
You can tune in to Breakfast in Bed on KZSC from 9 a.m. to noon every Sunday morning at 88.1FM.

Bonnie J. Morris is a Santa Cruz resident and is a women’s history professor at UC-Berkeley, Saint Mary’s College and Santa Clara University. She is also the archivist for Olivia Records and a consultant to the Smithsonian, as well as the author of 17 books, the most recent of which made Oprah’s list and was featured on C-Span and at the Bookshop Santa Cruz.